Review

We liked

Emilie Querbalec’s words are golden!
– This second novel surpasses his first novel. Cheer!
– Ambitious and addictive, the story builds like a good homemade mayo!
– Concepts, strong themes: transhumanism, virtual world,
spirituality, politics and their excesses.
-If you like the Love, Death & Robots series, you should like it..

We didn’t like

-The song of Nuying could put off by its false slowness..

Born in 1971 in Japan, Emilie Querbalec is a novelist and novelist of fantasy and SF. Her first novel published in 2020 titled Leaving the Autumn Mountains (winner of the Prix Rosny aîné) is a fascinating and poetic journey that I really enjoyed! With Nuying’s songs, the author’s writing is maturing, her new novel deserves our full attention!

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Summary

The planet Nuying, located twenty-four light years from the Solar System, has many features in common with the Earth of three billion years ago. There is water in the liquid state. Its volcanic activity is significant. Its seabed is traversed by faults and contains quantities of hydrothermal springs. It has a magnetosphere and a dense, protective atmosphere. All of this makes it a good candidate for hosting life.

The probe Marinate transmitted sound recordings of Nuying: songs that evoke by analogy those of whales.

When she was a child, Brume heard this call. Now an adult, specializing in the field of marine bioacoustics, she is about to take part in the greatest adventure that humanity has ever embarked on: joining Nuying after a twenty-seven-year space voyage. What will she discover there?

An extraterrestrial civilization or a total questioning of its certainties?

The Galactic Traveler’s Guide!

An ambitious novel, the opening of the novel resonates like the bewitching call of the sirens. Fascinating but perilous, the tone is set!

In this future, space travel is possible and within reach constitutes a challenge for humanity, in search of other possible planets. With the Shun project, families and generations are embarking for a new homeland, for example humans are already installed in ships on Titan or on Alpha-du-Centaure. Let’s say that science has made great progress in extending the duration of life, in its ability to radically push back its limits, allowing travelers to be immersed in cryogenic sacorphages, plunging them into phases of stasis and thus blocking the process of aging.. It is also possible to allow the migration of the spirit via the digitization and transfer of memories, the real and the virtual give life to new perspectives of evolution for the human species…

It is a utopian novel that explores the fascinating theme of first extraterrestrial contact in the heart of another world, against the backdrop of the fusion of spirituality and science. Thus Les chants de Nuying is divided into three parts…

The first part is introspectiveIopportunity to discover a world very different from ours, to present strong destinies to us through flashbacks, to bring the story to a journey supposed to last thirty years in the heart of Yutu, the Cargo-world, in order to bring them safely to the distant planet Nuying… Emilie Querbalec disseminates ambitious concepts along the way.

Is an advanced civilization necessarily technological?

We understand that spirituality and science will intertwine in this poetic, tragic novel, like a philosophical tale. And the music is the common thread of this novel, this haunting song from a distant planet fascinates Brume, bathed in the music of her childhood, she sees in it a sign and takes her destiny into her own hands.

The second part tells this journey, the danger roars within this new society.. Lhe expedition of the Earthlings in the company of the Selenes, these non-Earthling humans, will not be easy, with the added bonus of the project of a sect convinced of the imminence of the path to awakening, a sort of prophetic dream. Jonathan Wei, the Boss of the Shun project seems to have fallen under his influence, and this will have worrying consequences… Is data protection guaranteed infallibly? After all death is nothing since the memory can be reinstalled at will on a clone, except that…

The rather dark third part will brilliantly conclude this trip to Nuying. A last straight line, carrying a possible promise to the long-awaited answers: but what hides the song of Nuying? What can I say except that the end is powerful and concludes the novel in a surprising, grandiose way! And is reminiscent of the Love, Death & Robots series!

All for one! One for all?

In Les Chants de Nuying, we meet characters whose destinies will intersect in this human drama that will spare no one.

Either it’s about Haze, a specialist in bioacoustics, whose bond with her father has broken since the death of her mother, will push her to attempt the journey of her life. She will meet there Williama gifted cybernetician. Lichena Chinese astrophysicist and Danaa cognitive scientist of Russian origin and Meriema planetologist will accompany them during this long journey… Johnatan Wei, billionaire President of Space’O’ is at the origin of the Shun project. The former young sports man fascinated by the ocean and adept in extreme sports will have changed a lot following a series of key encounters which will earn him a meteoric rise, his key project is the study of Nuying songs with the best team. Not without reminding me of Jeff Bezos.. In his shadow, Sonam Tsering Tibetan guru (guru) of a sect is biding his time..

My conclusion

Emilie Querbalec offers a real odyssey through time and space with this breathtaking, modern and visionary novel!

Don’t ask me where I’m from, ask me where I live

Themes such as cloning, sectarian excesses, the meaning of our destiny struck me by the way the author injects them into this story. Also, the immersion in the heart of the mind and the virtual brought me back to the good memories of the Three body problem of Liu Cixin by its epic, poetic, daring and ambitious aspect.

In short, if you want to read a well-crafted, dynamic SF novel, this novel is for you! The author surpasses her previous literary effort, takes up the strengths of Leaving the Monts d’Automne and adds a more than welcome thriller side. Bluffing! Songs of Nuying will appeal to all lovers of effective, very well-written and poetic novels. One of the Top of this literary season and do not hesitate to also read his first novel.

At the publisher

where to find it

Chronicle of his first novel Leaving the Monts d’Automne

Review – Les chants de Nuying (Emilie QUERBALEC): The call of the Sirens (and not of Chtulhu!).